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Every parent lies to their child to keep them safe and sound. The legend that proliferated through Staten Island to keep the kiddies away from undesirable places (including an abandoned insane asylum and a TB ward) was Cropsey, an evil monster/human who stole children with varying degrees of savagery. Despite not knowing each other as children, filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio (who will be in attendance at this weekend's screenings at the PUFF Movie House) both heard of Cropsey and assumed its urban legend status until Jennifer Schweiger, a pre-teen girl with Downs syndrome went missing...
When Schweiger's body was eventually found, the circumstances were all to close to several other child disappearances on Staten Island. Evidence pointied to transient Andre Rand, a transient, former mental hospital employee with a face out of something from an Ed Wood movie. Cropsey focuses on Rand's case and how it intertwines with Staten Island's history and reputation as a dump, for both trash and unwanted people such as the mental patients. But it lacks focus. The Cropsey framing device wears thin, while the idea that Rand might be innocent or worked with others lacks any concrete, Thin Blue Line-like evidence. But I dig true crime stories and Rand's case is especially fucked. It was like a carwreck on the side of the highway. I knew I shouldn't look, I didn't really want to look but I still couldn't look away.
Cropsey. Fri.-Sat., Feb. 5-6, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 p.m. and midnight; Sun., Feb. 7, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m., $5, PUFF Movie House, Media Bureau, 725 N. Fourth St., 215-592-124, philadelphiaindependentfilmfestival.com.
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